Question from Kathy L.:
Dear Invention Geek,
I use a fax machine on a daily basis. Who invented this time savings machine? Was there a patent issued?
Kathy L.
Hey Kathy,
The invention of the fax machine is one of the greatest contributions to the history of communications.
Scottish clockmaker and inventor, Alexander Bain, is credited with inventing the first fax machine. He received British patent 9745 for the facsimile unit in 1843 for “automatic electrochemical recording telegraph.” Bain’s fax machine was an improvement on Sameul Morse’s telegraph machine. Morse’s device made it possible for the transmission of written messages over a wire. Bain called his invention a “recording telegraph” because of its ability to copy documents and images, rather than writing messages.
It has been almost 170 years since the first invention of the fax machine. Bain’s fax machine and concept has undergone numerous revisions before arriving at its current form.
The benefits of sunscreen have been known for thousands of years. Even the Greeks used a mixture of sand and oil to attempt to protect themselves from the sun while training for the Olympics. Christopher Columbus was the first to write about the use of sunscreen. Columbus wrote in his journal while visiting an island in the Caribbean that the people of the island “all paint themselves, some black, some other colors, but mostly red. I have learned that they do this on account of the sun, which does not injure them as much if they are painted.”
One of the greatest life saving inventions ever made was the EKG. To this day, variations of the original EKG machine help to discover heart disease and prevent heart attacks. An EKG machine picks up electrical pulses from the heart and records them in wave tracings. These waves help physicians diagnose cardiac abnormalities. The development of the first practical EKG began in 1889 at the First International Congress of Physiologists. Willem Einthoven saw British physiologist August Waller demonstrate recording the electrical activity of a heart using his dog.
People attempted for decades to design a properly functioning sewing machine. There were many machines designed and patented which simply did not work. Then in 1830, Barthelemy Thimonnier, a French tailor, developed a successful model. This machine caused fear and outrage among tailors in France. Afraid that they would lose their livelihoods to this invention, a group of tailors destroyed the plant where Thimonnier was producing his sewing machine.
Did you ever wonder why you have to wait until the final rinse to add the fabric softener to your laundry? Laundry detergent and fabric softener can’t be mixed because the mixture causes a chemical reaction which forms a solid.
The first passenger elevator was designed for France’s King Louis XV for his personal chambers in Versailles in 1743. Called the “Flying Chair” the elevator only went one floor, connecting the king’s chambers to his mistresses’ on the second floor of the palace. The king entered his elevator through his balcony and a arrangement of weights and pulleys hanging inside a chimney were pulled to raise or lower the chair.
You can add the microwave oven to the list of products invented by accident. Dr. Percy Spencer was not trying to invent a faster way to cook when he discovered the principal behind the microwave oven. Instead, Spencer was working for the Raytheon Corporation testing a new type of vacuum tube known as a magnetron. One day, he discovered that a candy bar which he had in his pocket had melted while working with the magnetron. This led to many more experiments with the tube.